He has signed on as a principal at New York-based Impact Venture Partners, L.P., a venture capital fund designed "to bring West Coast . . . entrepreneurial strategy and style to the underserved Northeast."

"Relative to Silicon Valley, the Northeast corridor is vastly underserved by the venture capital community," said Adam Dell Monday in a statement announcing the fund's launch. "The East Coast offers a wealth of investment opportunities in 'old line' vertical businesses, such as transportation, textiles and energy. These businesses will be reinvented on the Web."

Dell, who worked as a managing partner at Crosspoint Venture Partners in Woodside before moving east earlier this month, has managed to raise $100 million in seed money, culled from personal reserves and outside investments.

Big brother Michael, through his MSD Capital company, is one of those he tapped. John Mumford, a founding partner at Crosspoint, is another.

"I'm an investor and advisor," said Mumford. "Adam had worked here for about a year as an associate partner, primarily on business-to-business deals."

"He wanted to do something on his own," said Mumford, "so we started scouting areas. We looked at Texas since he's got a big brother down there. But he wanted to strike out on his own. New York appeared to be a virgin space.

"There's a lot of consumer, retail-type Net projects there, but not a lot of business-to-business."

And so, Dell left his digs in Palo Alto and headed for the Big Apple.

Since his arrival, he's wasted little time, immediately investing $3 million of that seed money in emerging business-to-business e-commerce companies.

Among the chosen firms is San Francisco's very own Buzzsaw.com, which provides online services to the $627 billion building design and construction

industry.

Also in the queue is iMark.com, a business-to-business industrial goods site based in Austin, Texas. Austin, of course, is home to Dell Computer, the leading retailer of personal computers, as well as older brother Michael's stomping grounds.

Adam's relationship with the elder Dell bodes well for Impact, said Mumford.

"I think there's very close friendship and mentoring there," said Mumford. "Michael is very involved in the Internet, with a vision for what's happening. He's very supportive."